That makes you start to think all of a sudden that you hardly even have the energy to make dinner and avoid falling asleep on the couch while watching television, let alone start building a successful business in your time off!

3 Simple Steps to a Successful Side Business

I get it. Life can be exhausting and you feel as if those who do this have some sort of advantage.

Expertise, experience, a lot of help. An extra hour or two each day that you don’t have.

1. Re-frame Your Thinking

If you’ve ever thought any of these things, you’re not alone. I know I’ve had thoughts like this as well. But instead of looking at your day job as a barrier, re-frame your thinking.

Sometimes, it’s difficult to see anything positive about working a day job and trying to build anything on the side. But there are plenty of positives if you flip the coin over.

For instance, your day job provides:

Constraints: Sometimes the constraints provided by our jobs feel like a bad thing, but constraints are positive. They ignite creativity and don’t allow for procrastination. Think back to school when you had to write a report in an hour. You probably did better on that report than you did on the ones you had weeks to write.

Skills: Our day jobs give us an environment to learn new skills and sharpen our existing skills. We can then transfer them to our businesses.

Funding: You have a day job, so you have an advantage: you haven’t been laid off and forced into entrepreneurship unexpectedly. Our jobs provide us with the funding to get things up and running, or at least put food on the table while we build our businesses.

When you begin to re-frame how you look at your job, you can start to use it as a tool rather than a barrier.

2. Determine Your Key Actions

No matter what business you are building, there are 1-2 key actions needed to build it.

Becoming a freelance writer you need to write and send pitches

In order to build a web design business you need to design websites and get your work in front of potential clients

To have a successful Etsy store (more on how to get started), you need to write great descriptions and take great photos

If you want to become a professional blogger, you need to write and build your audience.

What are key business building actions you need to take? Note that I didn’t ask for all actions you should do to build an empire.

If you want to become a professional blogger, there are dozens of things you could do to get ahead. Maintaining a presence on Facebook, hosting Webinars, hacking Pinterest, hosting giveaways, doing keyword research…the tasks are endless.

If you didn’t cultivate the roots, your raspberry bush wouldn’t exist. And only when the roots are strong can the raspberry bush bear fruit.

The leaves make the bush prettier and capture nutrients for the bush, and the little fuzzy thorns protect the bush. The buds and flowers before the fruit gain nutrition by attracting bees. But none of this would exist without the roots.

What are the roots of your business? All of the other stuff is great and will come after the roots are strong.

When you’ve finished scheduled, show up. No matter what. Rain or shine.

If you are tight for time and have to wake up earlier, then do it. It is worth it to set aside that hour of TV that you have. You ought to spend your lunch break building your business, and that will be your new power hour.

How I Use This System in My Life

When I was just first starting out with Unsettle, I was working a contract full-time.

At first, I used my evenings to maintain my businesses, so what I did is schedule an hour of completely uninterrupted work each morning.

The reasons why I do this are because of the following:

Firstly, I am the most focused first thing in the morning.

Second, my husband is still fast asleep so everything is quiet and undisturbed.

And third, the feeling of getting work done before doing everything else for the day is very satisfying.

When I sat down to think about the key actions I needed to do to make my business Unsettle work, writing was obviously the topmost priority. And below that top priority is building relationships with my target audience and peers.